درج ارزش بر روی نوآوری های مدل کسب و کار : بینش های تجاری سازی پروژه های صنعتی نوآوری های دیجیتال مخرب

In this paper we seek to show how marketing activities inscribe value on business model innovation, representative of an act, or sequence of socially interconnecting acts. Theoretically we ask two interlinked questions: (1) how can value inscriptions contribute to business model innovations? (2) how can marketing activities support the inscription of value on business model innovations? Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with the thirty-seven members from across four industrial projects commercializing disruptive digital innovations. Various individuals from a diverse range of firms are shown to cast relevant components of their agency and knowledge on business model innovations through negotiation as an ongoing social process. Value inscription is mutually constituted from the marketing activities, interactions and negotiations of multiple project members across firms and functions to counter destabilizing forces and tensions arising from the commercialization of disruptive digital innovations. This contributes to recent conceptual thinking in the industrial marketing literature, which views business models as situated within dynamic business networks and a context-led evolutionary process. A contribution is also made to debate in the marketing literature around marketing's boundary-spanning role, with marketing activities shown to span and navigate across functions and firms in supporting value inscriptions on business model innovations.

Business models and business modeling represent complex systems of interfaces and exchanges (Al-Debei and Avison, 2010, Chesbrough, 2011, Ehret and Wirtz, 2011 and Morris et al., 2005). Marketing activities are considered integral, defined as having an internal-external focus (Chesbrough, 2010). Day (1994) categorizes capabilities-based marketing activities into outside-in (e.g. market sensing), inside-out (e.g. integrated logistics) and boundary-spanning activities encompassing point of sale, product development, channel selection and marketing planning. Similarly, literature defines the business model concept as a mechanism used to bridge the gap between the outside-in and the inside-out perspective. Recent industrial marketing literature conceptualizes business models as evolving interconnecting firm, interfirm and market practices, attributing agency to them (Mason & Spring, 2011). Interaction between organizations and, and by extension, within networks of relationships, is critical to doing business (Ford, 2011). This reflects work in the marketing literature emphasizing the boundary-spanning perspective of marketing activities, focused on multiple actors inside and outside an organization and including multiple exchanges (Hult, 2011). In this paper we build upon these literature streams by proposing that marketing activities inscribe value on a business model. This is representative of an act, or sequence of socially interconnecting acts, by which humans cast relevant components of their agency and knowledge on business models through negotiation as a continual social process. We further propose that value inscription has particular relevance for disruptive digital product innovations and associated business model innovations, which deviate from and threaten existing market conventions and orders. The inscription of value on business model innovation is represented as the alignment of diverse interests within firms and networks of firms, in overcoming tensions and disagreements arising. We draw on sociology literature and particularly work around actor–network theory (Akrich, 1992, Akrich and Latour, 1992, Latour, 1987 and Latour, 1991), as well as the work of Joerges and Czarniawska (1998) focusing on technology and how organizations inscribe the world. Actor–network theory posits that stability and social order are continually negotiated as a social process of aligning interests through networks. Theoretically we ask two interlinked questions: (1) how can value inscriptions contribute to business model innovations? (2) how can marketing activities support the inscription of value on business model innovations? The study is set within four industrial projects commercializing disruptive digital technology innovations in business-to-business (B2B) markets. They included firms from different industrial sectors involving multiple and diverse interests, exhibiting tensions along with a common project aim. In this study we go beyond the traditional association of value with business models, contributing to ongoing debate in the industrial marketing literature on the reciprocal nature of value propositions in business relationships. Value inscription on business model innovations is shown to be a reciprocal practice. It is mutually constituted from the marketing activities, interactions and negotiations of multiple project members across firms and functions. Value inscription counters destabilizing forces and tensions arising from the commercialization of disruptive digital innovations. An empirical contribution is made to recent conceptual thinking in the industrial marketing literature, which views business models as situated within dynamic business networks and a context-led evolutionary process. This draws from and contributes to industrial marketing literature portraying a network as a set of actors or social entities connected by a set of ties or relationships. A contribution is also made to recent debate in the marketing literature around marketing's boundary-spanning role, with marketing activities shown to span and navigate across functions and firms in supporting value inscriptions on business model innovations. Applied guidelines are provided for firms that work, or aim to work, in collaborative industrial projects commercializing disruptive digital product innovations with business model innovations. Guidance is provided across temporal epochs on value inscriptions and supporting marketing activities to be practiced. In the next section we develop the theoretical framework. The research problem is defined before introducing the methodology to address it. Research findings are presented with theoretical and managerial implications discussed, before conclusions are drawn.

In this paper we show how marketing activities inscribe value on business model innovation, representative of an act, or sequence of socially interconnecting acts. Various individuals from a diverse range of firms involved in four industrial projects commercializing disruptive digital innovations cast relevant components of their agency and knowledge on business model innovations through negotiation as a continual social process. Going beyond the traditional association of value with business models, the inscription of value on business model innovation is represented as the alignment of diverse interests within these projects, in overcoming tensions and disagreements arising. A limitation of this study is its generalizability, due to its qualitative nature and location in a single geographic region, namely France. Furthermore, the study was focused on exploring industrial projects that involved disruptive digital technological innovations. While we would expect broadly similar findings in other industrialized nations embracing digital technologies, further study is needed to confirm this and uncover other pertinent insights. Future research has an opportunity build on this study's themes to investigate other aspects. Specifically, this research could focus on the optimal blend of strong and weak network ties and how they match different project firms', and their individual members', resource ties and activity links in aligning interests over time through value inscriptions. This will be challenging, due to often diverse set of interests, with industrial project stability potentially resting on the ability to translate, that is re-present or appropriate from the value inscriptions, others' interests to one's own. Future studies could examine how such business model translations are “embodied in texts, machines, bodily skills [which] become their support, their more or less faithful executive” (Callon, 1991: 143). While our initial theorising has shown how managers can support value inscriptions through their marketing activities, a useful research direction could be to understand how the inscriptions then transform and ascribe management behaviors in relation to a technology, business model, firm, networks and industries more generally. Expanding the breadth of marketing activities also presents a fruitful area of future potential enquiry. This will require different sectors to be considered, and less disruptive innovations, to ascertain the nature and boundary-spanning scope of the support offered by marketing activities in supporting value inscriptions. Future studies in these areas would be advised to use qualitative and longitudinal approaches to capture fine-grained insights into these dynamics.